Please note:(f2f) in the term column indicates that the course is held in person on campus.

Course Descriptions

CI 410/510 Bilingual Children: Program Models, Assessment, and Classroom Methods (3 credits)Ages 2-5 The rapid diversification of our nation brings with it great promise as well as challenges. For early childhood educators, it is imperative that programs be developed that effectively serve all students. This course is an introductory course on culturally and linguistically appropriate instruction, assessment, and development, framed within the context of linking the program to the families. Specific topics include first and second language acquisition, culture and acculturation, culturally appropriate curriculum and assessment, engaging families, and program models that build on the strengths that preschool children, ages 2-5, bring with them from home into the classroom.

SPED 483/583 Communication and Language Development: EI/SE (Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education) (3 credits) Designed to provide information about typical and atypical communication development, birth through early childhood. In addition, information will include strategies for EI/SE to promote communication development for all children.Recommended prerequisites: SPED 480/580

CI 478/578 Constructivist Curriculum: Big Ideas in ECE (3 credits)Ages 3-8 In this course you will consider the possibilities of taking a big idea, such as "balance" or "light", and exploring it deeply over time and across the curriculum with preschool and primary age children. Informed by Chaille's new book, Constructivism across the Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms: Big Ideas as Inspiration, participants will examine the ways that integrated curriculum and project work support children's learning and foster the connections necessary for them to construct knowledge. You will have the opportunity to develop resources and design activities related to a particular big idea, and to consider the challenges and rewards of bringing what you learn into your work with young children.

CI 410/510 Documenting Young Children's Learning (4 credits)In this course, students will explore documenting young children’s group learning experiences, emphasizing the relationships between the children’s learning and adult engagement through collaboration and teacher reflection. Students will expand their current views and ideas about children’s education by investigating and discussing the images of children, teachers, and families in relation to teaching and learning. Students will also learn to pay close attention to details in group learning in order to capture, collaborate on, and reflect on children’s learning. Students will investigate group learning techniques by directly observing project work, finding ways to collect and share documents of children’s group learning experiences, and reflecting on creativity in classroom teaching and learning.In the end, students will have many opportunities to consider their teaching style and philosophy about documentation design, collaborative techniques and style, and journal writing exercises through readings, presentations, videos, and group discussions. Students will be challenged to examine their own assumptions and commonly held ideas about their pedagogy of teaching and learning through the act of documenting young children’s experiences.

CI 410/510 The Digital Camera in ECE (1 credits)This one credit online class explores the way that photography provides children with a rich visual language for communicating their understandings and for making connections that construct knowledge. A camera can be a powerful classroom tool in the hands of a teacher, documenting children’s learning, making visual schedules, routines and supports, creating images of the children to weave into the room, and capturing provocations. However, in the hands of a child, a camera can do all of these things and inspire meaning-making in a new language. Focusing on the value inherent in children taking the lead in their own learning, we will look at how the camera becomes a tool children use for exploring ideas, creating theories, gathering research, and contributing to the classroom. We will explore how we, as early childhood educators, can enhance and extend children’s learning by providing access to a visual language in the classroom.

CI 410/510 Early Childhood Classroom Discipline, Guidance and Support for Learning (3 credits) Ages 3-5 This course focuses on how to offer discipline, guidance and support for classroom learning experiences. Students will explore and implement effective practices to help children be successful in classroom settings. This course is designed to provide students with knowledge on how to analyze tough classroom situations from a variety of viewpoints and implement conscious and intentional strategies to support all learners. The underlying philosophy in this course is that children's actions communicate and teachers can learn to "hear" this communication by carefully analyzing what they tell us. Then, teachers can plan for, respond to and foster welcoming places for learning.

CI 410/510 Emotional Life of Toddlers (3 credits) Ages 15-36 months This course explores caregiving practices designed to support learning during this critical period of social and emotional development. Links are made between brain development research and theories to the things that teachers and caregivers do everyday with toddlers. Topics include observation, establishing nurturing relationships, planning secure environments, activities designed to engage very young children, and positive guidance strategies.

ED 410/510 Inclusive Early Childhood Models (3 credits) Presents different approaches to early childhood education with a focus on inclusion and consultation in typical early childhood settings. Provides a framework for recommended practices for supporting young children with disabilities in early childhood settings. Discusses the underlying concepts and application of developmentally appropriate practice.

SPED 480/580 Introduction to Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (3 credits) Provides historical, social and legal foundations for early intervention and early childhood special education and other services to young children with special needs. Introduces concepts and processes for screening and assessment, family-centered planning, blending developmentally and individually appropriate practices, providing learning opportunities in natural environments and activities to include all children and transition planning. Specific attention is given to the various federal and state laws, rules, and regulations regarding the prohibition of discrimination about which Oregon teachers must be knowledgeable as required by Oregon Revised Statute 342.123.

SPED 410/510 Introduction to Infant/Toddler Mental Health (3 credits) Learn the basics of infant/toddler mental health (ITMH) from an interdisciplinary perspective. Gain knowledge about current research and interventions from the field of infant mental health. Special attention is placed on infant/toddler development, risk factors, assessment methods, prevention/intervention, and collaboration in the field. Also emphasized is the history of ITMH as a field and incorporating ITMH into policies and systems.

CI 472/572 Language and Literacy in ECE (3 credits) Ages 2-7 This course introduces students to the issues, ideas, and practices that help young children learn literacy. Examine how literacy grows out of children's experiences with and use of language. Look closely at the role of play in literacy development and how early childhood teachers and caregivers support and influence young children's literacy, share, and create activities that are grounded in current knowledge about children's literacy development.

CI 410/510 Numeracy Development in Young Children (3 credits) Ages 3-7 This course introduces the issues, ideas, and practices that help young children learn mathematics. Throughout the course, examine how numeracy grows out of children's real-life experiences. You also look closely at the role of play in numeracy development, and how we early childhood teachers and caregivers can best support and influence young children's math acquisition. In addition, learn and create activities that are grounded in current research and knowledge about children's numeracy development, and focus on practical classroom applications of math instruction in early childhood classrooms. This course also explores nurturing numeracy development through the use of children's literature, songs, journals, poetry, and games.

SPED 595 Prevention and Intervention in Infant Mental Health (3 credits)Develop an appreciation of the concepts of early intervention and prevention. Examine the range of interventions used in the field of infant mental health. Emphasis is on the importance of treating infants and toddlers in the context of their families and communities. Discuss intervention strategies, including those targeted at children with psychosocial/relational and developmental disturbances as well as those determined to be at risk. Review international, national, and regional programs, established and pilot, in early intervention and prevention. Improve ability to assess and critically evaluate the current science around treatment efficacy of various interventions.

CI 410/510 Teaching and Learning with Competent Infants and Toddlers (3 credits)This course offers an opportunity to explore a social constructivist perspective for developing curriculum that honors infants and toddlers as theory builders and competent learners. Students will study relevant theories about cognitive development and how infants and toddlers learn. Additionally, they will consider how the environment and materials set the stage for learning. The role of teachers as researchers who learn from and about infants and toddlers through careful observation will be examined, as well as their potential for making infant and toddler learning visible through documentation.

CI 410/510 The Young Child as Scientist (3 credits) Ages 3-8 In this course developmentally appropriate science for preschool and primary age children is explored. Activities focus on experimentation and problem solving. Using the book by Chaille and Britain, “The Young Child as Scientist,” participants experience and design activities for young children around three questions that derive from traditional science content. They are: Can I make it move?, Can I make it change?, and How does it fit? In the process, they learn more about constructivist teaching and curriculum, particularly as applied to science education.